Manchester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur: Where to watch Premier League as Pep Guardiola's side start title quest

It is perhaps unwise to make grand conclusions about any team two games into their season, but when Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur meet on Saturday, the teams will be telling a tale of two very different rebuilds.

Both teams were in desperate need of a refresh after disappointing seasons, though the scale of their underperformance varied greatly. City went trophyless for the first time in nearly a decade, slipping to third place in the table after winning the Premier League title for four years running, while Tottenham slid all the way down to 17th but also broke their 17 year trophy drought by winning the UEFA Europa League, Saturday's opponents creating an exercise in contrasts. There is perhaps no greater early season check-in, then, for a title-contending side and their boggy team who will arrive in Manchester with a patchwork squad after a summer full of hurdles and a new manager in tow.

Though both teams got off to a strong start against relegation-threatened sides in the first weekend of action, City outdoing Wolverhampton Wanderers in a 4-0 game and Spurs getting the better of Burnley with a 3-0 win, it is hard not to favor City in this tie. Pep Guardiola, now working with new director of football Hugo Viana, is clearly trying to create a redemption arc after essentially being out of the title race by Christmas last season and did much of their summer business early. The Club World Cup may have incentivized them, but City routinely prefer to sign players in the first weeks of the offseason, scooping up an exciting group of players headlined by Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki.

How to watch Manchester City vs. Tottenham Hotspur, odds

• Date: Saturday, Aug. 23 | Time: 7:30 a.m. ET
• Location: Etihad Stadium -- Manchester, England
• TV: USA Network | Stream: Fubo (Start watching, save $20!)
• Odds: Manchester City -200; Draw +370; Tottenham Hotspur +500

The attack-minded pair will help Guardiola address City's attacking issues from last season, when they looked one-note and overly reliant on Erling Haaland. The Norway international is still poised to be a central focus this season, maybe even more so this campaign than in the past, but the fresh faces around him could reinvigorate City's previously high-flying attack. Both Reijnders and Cherki are already off to strong starts with a goal each in last week's win at Wolves, Haaland making up the difference with a brace. In theory, it is the first run out for a City team that could put on a repeat of this performance several times over, but Spurs are definitely capable of putting up a stiff test – even if it has not been an exciting week in Tottenham.

Spurs went from riding the high of a Richarlison brace on Saturday to seeing Eberechi Eze snub them for Arsenal just four days later, missing out on a second key transfer target this summer after Morgan Gibbs-White changed his tune and stuck around at Nottingham Forest. Thomas Frank's side will still be short-staffed at the Etihad Stadium with no real replacement for James Maddison, who tore his ACL several weeks ago, and have little more than a week to land the last players of interest before the transfer window closes on September 1.

That said, though, Frank may have a plan to hand Guardiola a 10th defeat to Tottenham in his career, the most he has against any team. Frank replaced Ange Postecoglou because of his demonstrated ability to organize a defense, transforming Brentford from a newly promoted side into a Premier League regular by doing so. He will have the benefit of a healthy Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero, who just signed a new long-term deal, Spurs' excellent center backs who spent much of last season injured. If the team's performance in the UEFA Super Cup against Paris Saint-Germain is anything to go by, set pieces and long throw-ins could also play a big part in Saturday's game against City.

A win for either side would make for a strong early season statement, and a potentially an important litmus test for the rebuilds each of them are working on.